Clean & Green: Changing The Light Bulb

When the light bulb goes on, it usually signifies a bright idea. And about 5 years ago, Congress decided it would be a bright idea to change the energy standards for light bulbs used in your light fixtures and businesses. Thus, the passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

One of that law's major changes went into effect on July 14 when domestic manufacturers were banned from making incandescent light bulbs – a.k.a. T-12 light bulbs.

While you may pay less than $1 for a 60-watt light bulb today, a new LED [Light-Emitting Diode] light bulb is going to cost you as much as $25 per bulb. That's likely to result in sticker shock.

Ted Mitchell is the owner of the Little Rock franchise for Batteries Plus, a retail outlet selling the new light bulbs that will replace the old incandescents. He says the science and study of this move is about long-term energy savings.

“They're pushing you to go to LED because it saves 85% on your electrical bill,” said Mitchell. “The country's going green.”

Mitchell says when you calculate the energy savings and the need for future light bulb purchases, you'll come out way ahead and he's willing to take the time to help his residential and commercial customers become educated on the topic.

“We've got a display that we can show them the wattage that their current incandescent bulbs use, show you how much electricity it uses, the cost per year compared to the LEDs and what the actual cost to use it per year, and show you how much the savings are,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell's display breaks down like this:

That incandescent bulb you're using now cost $9 a year in electricity and lasts 300 hours of usage roughly. Multiply that times all of the light bulbs in your house plus the number of $1 light bulbs y

ou buy a year and you'll have a number of what you're spending.

LED bulbs have that $25 price tag, but they last 100 times longer than an incandescent, up to 30,000 hours of usage. That brings your cost per bulb per year down to about 75 cents.

So your electricity bill goes down with the new bulbs and over time, you'll spend less for light bulbs that don't need replacing as often.

Mitchell says there will be about a year or more inventory of the old bulbs that were stopped from manufacturing and import on July 14.  And he says that high price for an LED bulb won't stay that high for very long.

“We're thinking that by the time all the inventory is out of every location, the cost of LED will come down quite considerably,” he said.

And there is a lower-priced, mid-efficiency bulb that is better than an incandescent and cheaper than an LED — it's called a CFL bulb, a.k.a. Compact Fluorescent Bulb, and it'll run you about $2 to $3 apiece.

You can listen to our radio report on light bulbs here. If you want to learn more about this subject and other sustainability topics:

BatteriesPlus.com
EnergySavers.gov
KeepArkansasBeautiful.com